Nursing Research NURS-6317
The setting in which descriptive studies are most often conducted is in a:
natural setting, such as a home, hospital, or school.
For those nurses interested in pursuing clinical research, mastery of the principles of __ in the design and conduct of research are imperative in of the context of evidence-based practice and widespread publication of clinical studies. Knowledge of the study designs, their appropriate application, and strictly adhering to study design methods can provide high-quality evidence to serve as the basis for rational clinical decision-making.
rigor
Several researchers have designed an experimental study to evaluate whether preoperative teaching about postoperative physical therapy will be helpful with compliance. First they want to determine whether its planned methods will be effective. To determine this, they plan to conduct what type of study to refine the study methods?
A pilot study
Which is the best statement that differentiates between the sizes of samples and populations?
A population is usually larger than a sample.
Knowledge generated through research is essential for describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling phenomena important in nursing practice and patient care. Which of the following research study descriptions reflect(s) the generation of descriptive knowledge?
A school nurse is interested in studying to what extent adolescent females feel ambivalent about becoming pregnant and develops a survey intended to capture this information. A Clinical Nurse Specialist working in a dialysis unit wants to determine the number of hours her staff spend daily cleaning urine collection jugs.
What does a quantitative research instrument measure?
A study variable
What are the functions of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing?
Advancing scholarship and dissemination of research findings
Classic, systematic, interpretive, and critical ethnography are the four philosophical perspectives within ethnography. Which statement best describes the output or the purpose of systematic ethnography?
Description of a culture's structures through examination of patterns of social interaction and important institutions and organizations
A nurse leader in a Women's Health Unit is thinking of conducting a study looking at quality-of-life perceptions in a random sample of clinic users. When discussing the population to whom they hope to apply their findings, the nurse's co-investigator says "Women undergoing elective abortions are unlikely to grieve the loss of their fetus." This is an example of which of the following?
An assumption
In the early 1920s, what was the major outcome resulting from the publication of the Goldmark Report recommendations?
An increase in the number of university-based schools of nursing
In Figure 2-1, what is the implication of the placement of the items on Level VI?
Any kind of research provides stronger evidence than does non-research knowledge.
A group of oncology nurses studied the effect of participation in a structured exercise program of walking following mastectomy. The study purpose was to determine whether mild exercise decreased reported side effects of chemotherapy at 3, 6, and 9 months during the intervention period. The control group received chemotherapy without the structured program of exercise. This study is an example of which of the following?
Applied research
In an effort to generate knowledge that will improve clinical practice, a researcher conducts a study to determine the effectiveness of a special program of sensitivity training for nurse managers upon several outcomes, all related to the staff's ability to identify and intervene appropriately when medication errors occur. This is an example of what type of quantitative research?
Applied research
Which of the following statements accurately characterizes the two types of scientific investigation, basic research and applied research?
Applied research is a scientific investigation conducted to generate knowledge, the results of which have potential for direct application to practice. Basic research is a scientific investigation directed toward better understanding of physical or psychological processes, without any emphasis on application.
The researcher conducts a descriptive study using a self-report questionnaire. The basic concept behind the use of self-report questionnaires is that the responses are honest. This concept is an example of which of the following?
Assumption
Which of the following qualitative strategies might be employed by a qualitative researcher to strengthen believability of study findings, producing a more rigorous study?
Bracketing Adherence to the tenets of the underlying philosophy Data collection that continues long enough to describe well the phenomenon of interest. Careful wording of all parts of the research design to reflect the study's philosophical orientation. An interpretation that is rooted in the statements of the participants, as reflected in quotations that match the central ideas identified by the researcher. Reflexivity
In research, it is important to attempt to control for influences that either are important to the study or could confuse the results of the study in relation to the phenomena the researcher is attempting to study. Why is this concept so essential when conducting research, especially with experimental study designs?
By reducing or controlling for the effects of extraneous variables, the researcher will have greater confidence that the effect of the planned intervention was due to the intervention itself and not due to other factors. By reducing or controlling for the effects of extraneous variables, the researcher will have greater confidence that if no effect of the planned intervention was found, then the lack of expected outcome was because the intervention itself may not have been effective.
Which of the following is/are not step(s) in the quantitative research process?
Conducting a meta-analysis of the literature Flexibility during data collection and analysis At implementation, determining how the collected data will be used by nurses
Evidence-based practice in nursing should do which of the following?
Consider the nurses' clinical expertise and the needs, values, preferences, and culture of the patients along with the research evidence
The purpose of a study was to identify whether there was a relationship between the number of days each month that nurses sat down at the bedside of patients uninterrupted on a particular unit for at least 5 minutes and the unit's patient satisfaction scores. This purpose statement indicates that this is probably which kind of study?
Correlational
A human resources manager performs a study that focused on the professional lifespan of nurses in a single health care facility. The manager is trying to discover whether there is a relationship between their choice of work area and the number of years they have work in the facility. What type of research is this?
Correlational research
What type of quantitative research involves the systematic investigation of relationships between or among variables?
Correlational research
The primary distinction in expectations related to research between a nurse prepared as a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and a nurse prepared as a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is that:
DNP-prepared nurses primarily focus on evidence-based guidelines, protocols, algorithms, and policies for practice, while PhD-prepared nurses primarily focus on the conduct of research and generation of new knowledge for the discipline.
What type of reasoning is represented in the following?Premise 1: Patients with untreated right-sided heart failure experience shortness of breath. Premise 2: Patient Y has a new diagnosis of right-sided heart failure and has not started treatment. Conclusion: Patient Y will report having experienced shortness of breath.
Deductive reasoning
A newly employed nurse administrator wants to explore the current database containing information on the employees on the units the administrator supervises. The manager accesses the managerial database and gathers data about all of the current employees on the unit, including work shift, number of years employed, age, gender, educational preparation, certifications, work history, and professional accomplishments. What type of research is this?
Descriptive research
The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative addresses the need for which of the following knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) in master's-level nursing students?
Developing research-based algorithms and policies
A nurse midwife has conducted a qualitative study exploring women's disenfranchised grief following an abortion (i.e., her sense of not being able to grieve or discuss her sense of loss openly following the procedure). As she analyzes the narratives gathered, which type of reasoning will she use to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon?
Dialectic
A researcher randomly assigns a large group of subjects who are hospital patients either to receive magnesium at bedtime or not to receive magnesium at bedtime, and then measures sleep quality and duration. What type of research is this?
Experimental research
In a rehabilitation unit, patients are randomly assigned to high fiber diets versus ordinary fiber diets, in order to measure the effect on constipation. What type of research is this?
Experimental research
In which of the following strategies does the researcher collect data instead of using preexistent data?
Experimental research
The different types of qualitative research are consistent with particular philosophical perspectives or traditions. The philosophy shapes the view of science that in turn shapes the approaches and methods selected for the study. What type of qualitative research study identifies no formal approaches or methods with which researchers examine the phenomenon of interest?
Exploratory-descriptive
Which individual is considered to be the first nurse researcher?
Florence Nightingale
Logic in research design is enhanced by using a process called substruction. Which of the following is at the highest level of the study?
Framework
A researcher publishes a paper describing how faith and meditation helped during the rehabilitation process. Specifically, the nurse researcher was interested in the problems that a group of patients had experienced in rehab and the processes they used to handle their problems. The researcher knows that the findings of this study are grounded in concrete world experiences but interpreted at a more abstract theoretical level. The methodology used by this researcher is an inductive method known as:
Grounded theory
A researcher interviews 14 participants, analyzes the data, and produces a framework presenting ideas that seem to be connected with willingness to undergo routine colonoscopy at recommended intervals. The ideas are family history of colon cancer, marital status, presence of polyps with initial colonoscopy, and religious belief. What type of research is this?
Grounded theory research
Hospital nurses are observed in order to determine exactly how long nurses swab IV ports with alcohol. Because they are being observed, they "scrub the hub" longer than they ordinarily would have. This is an example of what concept relevant to quantitative research?
Hawthorne effect
Classic, systematic, interpretive, and critical ethnography are the four philosophical perspectives within ethnography. Which statement best describes the output or the purpose of interpretive ethnography?
Identification of the behaviors and shared symbols that represent people's values and thought processes relative to their culture
Classic, systematic, interpretive, and critical ethnography are the four philosophical perspectives within ethnography. Which statement best describes the output or the purpose of critical ethnography?
Identification of the status of a group, relative to power differential, for the purpose of inspiring that group to act in order to ameliorate their status
Which type of reasoning is represented in the following example?Observation 1: An altered level of comfort is experienced with invasive abdominal surgery.Observation 2: An altered level of comfort is experienced with invasive facial surgery.Observation 3: An altered level of comfort is experienced with invasive dental surgery.Conclusion: Therefore, any invasive surgery leads to an altered level of comfort.
Inductive
The researcher identifies two groups of students to participate in a research study about the effects of a cardiac arrest simulation on their achievement of learning outcomes. Both groups attend a class session related to cardiac arrest and complete an online virtual clinical. Some choose to also participate in a simulation, a debriefing session, and then a repeat simulation involving a patient arrest. What type of design is this study?
Interventional
The process of science involves the testing and retesting of theories with the goal of building a body of knowledge to explain reality. Historically, traditional empirical approaches have valued knowledge gained from reasoning and empirical (numbers and counts or quantitative) measurement over knowledge gained from intuition and narrative analysis (qualitative) approaches. Which of the following statements underlie the thinking behind this bias?
Intuition is unscientific, since it is not measurable and can't be explained by logic. Intuition is not easily expressed in a logical manner so that others understand. Intuition represents a lack of knowing and has no place in a discipline's science.
What is the major contribution of historical nursing research?
It allows us to explain the world of today through the lens of yesterday.
Which of the following statements characterizes allqualitative research?
It is interpretive. Meaning is revealed in the analysis process.
Qualitative and quantitative methodologies differ in a variety of ways. Which statement reflects a characteristic that is not descriptive of quantitative research?
It is mainly used to develop theory.
The nurse researcher is developing a study to identify the degree of improvement in cardiac output in babies after corrective heart surgery using a new device. In designing the study, the researcher must remember the development of a research study is what kind of a process?
Iterative
Which statement about the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) is most accurate?
Its goal is the generation of research that pertains to nursing.
Which of the following is an assumption of historical philosophy?
Knowledge gained about past events increases understanding of the past, the present, and the future.
Which one of the following statements best characterizes scientific rigor in qualitative studies?
Methods are congruent with the underlying philosophical perspective, analysis reflects the perspective of the participants, and data are collected with sensitivity and thoroughness.
A student completes her master's thesis on correlates of depression in retired airline pilots and a copy has been provided to her each member of her thesis committee. Has this student communicated her research findings?
No, because the findings have not been made available to the appropriate persons who will utilize them.
In phenomenology, two schools of thought, Husserlian and Heideggerian, exist regarding the researcher's approach to data collection. Which one of the following does not accurately describe the primary differences in perspective between the two schools?
One school holds that there is one single basis for all knowledge in the world, and the other holds that there is no single reality.
If a nurse manager wants to study how effective last year's policies governing implementation of a "bundle" of interventions to prevent cross-contamination of MRSA have been working in her units, which of the following research strategies would she use?
Outcomes research
In order to investigate and evaluate how effective nurses' actions are in achieving desired effects or consequences in a natural setting, a nurse is likely to choose which research methodology?
Outcomes research
What two related activities were the initial focus and are still the current mission of the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)?
Outcomes research and applications of research evidence to practice
A researcher studies the effect upon dental caries formation of a year-long regimen of daily rinsing with a particularly noxious-flavored oral solution, only to discover than 285 of the 300 subjects in the study have withdrawn from it by the end of the first month. Which step in the research process was not properly undertaken that might have refined the research treatment of this study and improved the overall study?
Performing a pilot study
The concept that expert nurses develop skills and understanding of patient care over time and that levels of clinical knowledge and progress across five levels from "novice" to "expert" reflects which method of acquiring discipline-related knowledge?
Personal experience
A researcher uses interviews with two or three open-ended questions to study patients receiving cancer treatments for pancreatic cancer, in order to understand their lived experiences and the meanings they attribute to those complex experiences. What type of research is this?
Phenomenologic research
Classic, systematic, interpretive, and critical ethnography are the four philosophical perspectives within ethnography. Which statement best describes the output or the purpose of classic ethnography?
Provision of a complete description of a culture, usually in a different geographical location, that is based on the researcher's sustained on-site presence
A researcher designs a study. It depends on interviews to gather data, it has a clear purpose statement, it provides its results as a narrative without statistical analysis, and it makes general suggestions for practice. What type of research is this?
Qualitative research
What are the standard methodologies of nursing research covered in this text?
Quantitative Qualitative Mixed methods Outcomes
Which of the following is one of the principal differences between quantitative and qualitative research?
Quantitative research is judged to lack rigor if flexibility in data collection or data analysis is displayed. Flexibility in data collection and analysis is permitted in qualitative research.
What term describes a statement about an area in which nursing's knowledge base is incomplete, related to general understanding, practice implications, or theory?
Research problem
In which way did Florence Nightingale contribute to evidence-based practice?
She gathered data on morbidity and mortality that changed the care of hospitalized soldiers.
Which statement is an example of an operational definition?
The newborn's level of pain following a heel stick procedure will be measured using the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS). The researcher's numerical assessments of facial expression, quality of cry, breathing patterns, arm and leg movements, and state of arousal, will be summed to provide the NIPS total score.
Which is the best example of evidence-based practice?
The nurse acquires knowledge using a number of methods and sources, then modifies practice incorporating clinical judgment, expertise, and knowledge of the patient to meet the patient's needs within each situation and environment.
What does the "grounded" in grounded theory mean?
The theory that emerges is "grounded" in real-world data.
Which of the following characterize qualitative researchers?
They use an inductive approach. They share the goal of deriving an interpretation from the words and actions of the research participants. They share an ability to adjust their methods to ideas that arise during data collection. The participant in context is the valued focus of qualitative inquiry. If two different qualitative researchers independently conducted the same study, naming of themes and concepts would be different. They utilize reflexivity as a bias-control strategy.
Researchers using grounded theory research do which of the following?
Think about possible connections among ideas, based on the research data collected.
Which of the following is the general purpose of phenomenological research?
To describe the lived experience
What is the focus of ethnographic research?
To explore social interactions in the context of culture, so as to provide a description
Nursing research is a scientific process that does which of the following?
Validates and refines existing knowledge Generates new knowledge Includes the study of nurses' clinical practice and patient care issues Generates questions designed to help develop a unique body of scientific knowledge for nursing
A nurse who works at a women's clinic wishes to study the experience of women with eating disorders who have experienced a miscarriage. Which one of the following research questions reflects a phenomenological approach?
What is it like for women with eating disorders who have experienced a miscarriage?
In regard to research, a relational statement is:
a statement positing that a relationship of some kind exists between two or more concepts.
Participation in research is important for all nurses, and the American Nurses Association (ANA) has identified the level of participation based on education. According to this organization, master's-prepared nurses are expected to:
collaborate with other researchers; synthesize and use research to improve practice procedures and guidelines.
Descriptive research is typically used to:
describe the frequency of an event or phenomenon.
The purpose of nursing research is to:
develop theory in nursing. improve quality of patient care. corroborate or enhance existing knowledge. generate new knowledge for evidence-based practice. test reality.
The focus of a phenomenological research inquiry is to:
explore experiences of study participants to gain their understanding of those experiences.
Thinking that is coherent and logical is necessary for the progression of nursing theory and research. This kind of thinking involves the processes of:
introspection, intuition, and reasoning.
Nursing practice, exploring research priorities of funding agencies, and professional organizations' priorities are major sources for:
identifying a research problem for study.
The researcher is trying to improve the validity of the study. In planning the study, a mathematical analysis is performed to determine the number of elements necessary to select in order that there will be enough data for statistical testing and generalizability of findings. This best describes the concept of:
power analysis.
The complex, multifaceted concept that characterizes a particular discipline is developed or attained in a variety of ways. The most valued means for obtaining an empirical knowledge base for nursing practice is through:
quantitative research.
The practice of thinking about something in a logical way in order to draw inferences and/or form conclusions or judgments is:
reasoning.
A set of concepts, definitions, relationships, and assumptions or propositions derived from nursing models or from other disciplines and which project a purposive, systematic view of phenomena by designing specific interrelationships among concepts for the purposes of describing, explaining, predicting, and/or prescribing is called:
theory.
